


Wrong-footed

by Minutia_R



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, F/F, Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-27
Updated: 2014-01-27
Packaged: 2018-01-10 05:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1155663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minutia_R/pseuds/Minutia_R
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Toph can still feel the heat in the star-metal, and the memory of power, even in stillness.  Suki’s arm feels the same.</i>
</p>
<p>What happens at the Jasmine Dragon stays at the Jasmine Dragon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wrong-footed

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, I was going through my WIP folder and found a thing. It was originally going to be part of a longer thing, but it doesn't look like it will be at this point, so enjoy it for what it is?

The first time Toph kisses Suki and means it, they’re at the Jasmine Dragon in Ba Sing Se. They’re on the balcony, and Aang and Katara have slipped off to a private corner--or at least a corner they think of as private. Toph womanfully refrains from pointing out that the same damn floor covers this entire level of the teashop.

There’s a squeak of rubber on stone, from the new wheel design that Teo’s been working on with the plantbenders. “The table soccer’s set up,” he calls from the archway. “Who’s in?”

“Oh, me!” says Toph.

“No bending,” says Teo.

Toph’s about ninety percent sure she can cheat and not get caught, but if she does get caught Zuko will be pissy the rest of the evening, and somehow winding Zuko up isn’t as fun as it used to be. Gloomily, Toph wonders if she’s growing up, or something. “You chuckleheads have fun then,” she says, waving a dismissive hand.

“Oh, we will,” says Sokka. “Coming?” He must be talking to Suki, because there’s no one else there.

Suki pulls him in for a kiss, and some of his drink sloshes onto the floor. Toph smells plum wine. No fair, Sokka’s been holding out on her. On the other hand, she actually likes jasmine tea, which is something she’d rather not have to admit. “I’m good here,” Suki says. “Score a few goals for me, ‘kay?”

Sokka makes a noise like a cheerful leer, and the floor echoes with feet and wheels for a minute, and Toph is left alone on the balcony with Suki. It would probably make things more awkward to change her mind and go play table soccer now.

There’s a cool breeze, and silence. Toph knows that Suki knows she’s there, because she’s a little jittery, the way she always is unless Toph’s just come into the room and Suki hasn’t seen her yet. Not that Suki has ever been anything but nice. Toph walks over and settles her arms on the railing, and says, “Whatcha up to?”

“Looking at the stars,” says Suki. “They’re different than the ones on Kyoshi Island. Sometimes I see them and none of this seems real.” A soft, rueful chuckle. “That probably doesn’t make much sense.”

“Not really,” Toph agrees. “Stars are like anything else. They burn, and then they’re gone.” On impulse, she unwraps the bracelet from her upper arm and bends it around Suki’s wrist instead. Suki’s pulse flutters wildly, and Toph’s fingers raise goosebumps where they touch. “This used to be a star. This is all that’s left of it--this and Sokka’s sword.”

Toph can still feel the heat in the star-metal, and the memory of power, even in stillness. Suki’s arm feels the same. Her fingers trace the thin band wonderingly, as if Toph has given her something priceless--which she has, but she hadn’t expected Suki to realize it.

"Is that from the meteorite you found in Shu Jing? I wish--sometimes I wish I could have been with you guys then, I feel like--" A soft jingle of earrings; Suki is shaking her head. "But that really is dumb, I mean, what I've got is pretty great."

"Huh," says Toph, with a curl to her lip. Is that what this nervousness is about, is Suki jealous, or does she think Toph is? Maybe Katara's said something to her. It would have been like the Sugar Princess, to take Suki aside and drop a word in her ear, just to make sure no one's _feelings_ got hurt. "Sokka's all right, I guess. But, look--I've felt his heartbeat when he talks to his sister, and I've felt it when he talks to me. It's the same. That's nothing to do with you."

"Oh," says Suki, sounding not at all reassured. Maybe Toph has said too much. "The lie-detecting thing . . . I guess that must be pretty useful."

As long as Toph is already saying too much . . . "It sucks. Do you know how often I've heard 'oh, we don't think of you as the blind girl, Toph.' 'Of course you can take care of yourself!' 'You look lovely in that shade of green.' Just once it would be nice to be able to believe it. Why do you think I'm so blunt all the time?"

"I thought you just didn't care what anyone thought about you."

"No," says Toph. "I can't help knowing what they think, that's all."

"Can't you?" Suki's voice is barely a whisper; she might be talking to herself. And it's true what she says--Toph can feel the speeded-up heart rate and restless muscles that indicate a lie, she can hear the slight intakes of breath that swallow words unsaid, but she can't always tell what they mean. When it comes to the landscape of other people's hearts, Toph is as blind as anyone else.

"Um . . . Suki?" Toph touches the bracelet on Suki's wrist again, and leans in close, hears Suki's breath catch and feels her light up like a torch. Toph lifts up on her toes to bring their faces to the same level (Suki is still leaning forward against the railing, or else it would take more than that) and for a single vertiginous instant it feels like flying free of the earth. Then her mouth meets Suki's, and it's only an awkward tangle--where do noses go, should Toph close her eyes if she's not using them to see anyway--but Suki is more practiced at this. Once the first moment of shock passes, she puts her arm around Toph to brace her, and the graceless position Toph has chosen shifts into something that feels comfortable and natural and not quite enough.

Toph has fought with non-benders before, both against and alongside, too much to underestimate them--but it has always seemed that their chi, however focused and graceful, never extends beyond their own bodies. Now Suki is holding Toph close, running her tongue against Toph's upper lip in a way that makes her gasp, the energy flowing through Suki into Toph and back into the earth. When Suki sets Toph onto her feet again, she's trembling. She frowns, and holds onto the stone railing hard enough to make finger-marks, and the trembling stops.

"Um," says Suki.

"Yeah," says Toph, running a hand through her hair, probably to little effect. "So."

"I--" Suki starts, and at the same time an awful thought hits Toph.

"I didn't mean to mess things up with you and Sokka," she says. "That wasn't what this was about."

"I know," says Suki. "You'd just punch me, wouldn't you? Or throw rocks at me, or whatever, I mean, sneaky's not really your style."

"Hey! I can sneak plenty! I was doing the whole blind bandit thing behind my parents' backs for years, I'm totally sneaky."

"I'm sure you are." Suki pats Toph's arm, and Toph blows her hair out of her face in a grunt, half-exasperated, half-amused, because this is exactly the way she's heard Suki talking to Sokka. “But, well. On Kyoshi Island, between sisters-in-arms, no one would question it. If a husband made trouble, that’s grounds for divorce. Not that I want a divorce from Sokka--not that we’re married--”

Toph pulls a face. “Relationship stuff. Leave me out of it.”

“You sure?” says Suki.

Toph starts to speak, then stops again, wrong-footed. She isn’t sure what she’s being offered here, but--it’s like being invited to play table soccer with no bending; she’d always be at a disadvantage. “Yeah.”

“All right,” says Suki. She’s disappointed, and her body still hasn’t recovered from the kiss any more than Toph’s has. It hasn’t made things easier between them, but they’re differently difficult, at least. “Oh, hey, you probably want your bracelet . . . you didn’t mean to give it to me for good, did you?”

Toph didn’t. And if she doesn’t take her hand out of Suki’s right away once the bracelet’s around her own arm again, well, Suki doesn’t say anything. It’s no big deal.

They stay like that, leaning against the railing, until there are shouts from the main tea room, and the sound of smashing porcelain accompanied by wails of despair from Uncle Iroh.  
“You want to go watch the table soccer riot?” says Suki.

Toph points to her face. “Blind?”

“Oh, um,” says Suki. “I meant--”

Toph laughs and punches her in the arm. “Let’s go,” she says, pulling Suki along behind her.


End file.
